Evangelist Robertson Warms Up For Presidential Run

NEW ORLEANS — In a city known for hot jazz and silky sin, Pat Robertson, preacher and TV star, fired up the faithful for his all-but-announced presidential run.

Instead of brimstone, he served history a la Robertson to a luncheon crowd of 1,000, dropping names like de Tocqueville, Voltaire, Adams, Jefferson and Lenin.

He whipped up images of God and government, ladling words from the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the greats of America's past.

Images of government without God also leavened his speech -- a pinch of the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, a dash of Lenin and the Soviet Union.

The message was clear -- God and government brought greatness to America, a government without God leads to anarchy and totalitarianism.

''This country was founded on one premise -- that these liberties were given to us by God,'' said Robertson, 55, host of the 700 Club and head of the Christian Broadcasting Network.

''This nation has been great not because of some government in Washington,'' he said. ''It's been great because of the initiative of the people, the faith of the people and the grace of God.''

This much was also clear, yet left unsaid -- Robertson thinks he can put God back into American government and thinks a cresting wave of Christian- tinged conservatism can give him the Republican nomination and put him into the White House.

He has tested the presidential waters since the beginning of the year. On Wednesday, from Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., during a nationwide television extravaganza that befits this master of cool, electronic evangelism, Robertson will announce whether his coy flirtation will turn to ardent courtship.

It is expected that Robertson's sub rosa run will break to the surface. That prospect not only fuels the debate about the propriety of a preacher participating in politics, but touches a vast spectrum of trends, issues and stratagems inside and outside the political realm.

''When you drop the gasoline of religion on the straw of politics and set fire to them, there's a whole bunch of incendiary factors that explode,'' said James Dunn, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, a Washington, D.C., lobbying group.

''Any one of those factors could undergird his appeal or could wind up being massive spoilers,'' he said.

Once greeted with snickers and hoots, Robertson's strong, second-place showing this summer in the opening round of Michigan's elaborate Republican delegate selection process has stifled the laughs and drawn him serious attention.

A Robertson for President campaign is a byproduct of the growing political sophistication of the Religious Right and a natural extension of the increasing number of fundamentalist Christians participating in politics, particularly Republican politics.

It is also a reflection of a growing restlessness among conservative evangelicals who have flooded the Republican Party since the mid-1970s and may make up a fifth of the delegates to the 1988 national convention.

Those Christian political participants make up an important wing of the GOP and have been ardently courted by such presidential aspirants as Vice President George Bush and Rep. Jack Kemp of New York.

But they have exhibited dissatisfaction with more moderate members of the GOP establishment, the so-called ''country-club set,'' and mainstream party politicians, even Ronald Reagan.

Like black voters in the Democratic Party, they have expressed feelings of being used at election time, then abandoned on issues they deem important, such as school prayer and abortion.

More and more, those Republican newcomers, mostly white and decidedly conservative, seem to want their own man. And in that sense, Robertson's candidacy is a reverse image of Jesse Jackson's 1984 presidential bid.

Democrats chortle at the prospects of Robertson causing a split between conservative evangelicals and more moderate members of the GOP, a schism that could devastate the party and enhance Democratic chances of claiming the White House.

''If he maintains his rather rigid religious absolutism, it will divide the Republican Party,'' said Paul Kirk, chairman of the Democratic National Committee. ''It's ironic; the Republicans appear to be getting more exclusive and rigid while the Democrats are getting more inclusive and tolerant.''

Like Jackson, Robertson could electrify an important group of supporters and bring new voters to the GOP, said Harrison Hickman, a Democratic pollster from Washington, D.C.

But those supporters could turn away from the party if they think Robertson is mistreated during the nominating process, as Jackson's supporters thought in 1984.

With his right-wing stands on abortion, school prayer, the Supreme Court and women's rights, and the anti-Catholic image of fundamentalism, Robertson is also a natural foil for Democrats eager to stem the flow of young voters, Jews and Hispanics to the GOP.